Battle of Knits

DIY Lobotamy

I have been seriously thinking about performing major surgery on myself lately. However, I cannot decide between a lobotomy and tubal ligation. Both would have results that might help my situation, but I am just not sure which would be more effective.

(Probably the lobotomy, since a tubal ligation is not retroactive.)

My son is seriously on thin ice with me. If this is the beginning of the “terrible twos” then one of us is in big-time trouble. It seems that he cannot go more than sixty seconds without being held. There are out and out tantrums several times per day now, when he used to be so wonderful. We cant take him to the grocery store… crap, I tried to walk him to the mailbox today and that was a disaster! It ended with me carrying an armful of mail & a package one one side and a kicking screaming kid in the other. He is hitting, throwing things, pulling hair and being generally defiant. In a way I am sort of proud of all his little kid angst… then I have to duck to avoid being hit upside the head with a toy car. He is seriously asserting himself and telling me that he will do what he wants. Well, I have news for that little boy… he had better hope that this phase does not last or he will be spending a lot of time in “the penalty box”! I have already been talking to Josh about it and I am going to have to begin the time-out training ASAP.

You just dont picture this aggravation when you are pregnant. Or when they are learning to crawl & walk… then BAM! Your sweet little baby turns into a monster. One day I’m getting six kisses in a row, then next he trying his hardest to kick me in the face. “Patience is a virtue” and whomever came up with that saying must have had many toddlers. I just hope I survive this. PLease please remind me of all this insanity if I ever say I’m ready for another one!!! (email me the link!)

Finally time to start a heel

My socks are coming along slowly. One needs another chart repeat, the other is ready for a heel. Eventually I might finish them… by the end of the Olympics? HA-HA yeah right! It just isnt going to happen and I have accepted it. I’m just glad everyone in our house is alive… for now. Oh and I have not yet been committed to a mental hospital.

The Strongbad Without a Face

In the land of crochet… Which I visited last night since I was exhausted from averaging about 4 hours of sleep a night for the past 5 nights and a bit burnt out on lace after knitting on my socks at Hank’s Sunday afternoon. I sewed him all together. I just need some felt for his face. His head is a tad lopsided, but I’m over it. I had to sew around the head about 40 times. The body and feet are stuffed with rice and lentils so they are heavier like a beanbag, but the head is just full of fluff, so it was nearly impossible to keep it from flopping… after sewing and sewing… and sewing… I looked at it. It was not floppy, just a bit tilted. It is going to have to do!  I have really enjoyed these amigurumi projects.

Handmaiden Casbah Sock ~ Ruby

Everything on the needles and hooks will be going ON HOLD in March. March 1st I am starting an Ishbel shawl. I have been committed to this for a month and I am very excited to start it. The yarn is delicious. This picture is terrible, since it was cloudy today, but dont worry. This blog will be saturated in photos of this shawl. I would like to gift this one too, however, this might have to be mine, since I am completely lusting over this yarn. I have named my project the “Ruby-ISH-BELla” because I am super lame. (I have accepted this too.) 

So on hold will be: The Vancouver Socks, the Tea Leaves Cardi, the Toodee doll and one day I might finish the crocus scarf. I had intended to work on it during the Olympics, but never even took it out of the bag. I think it is that yarn. Someone cursed that yarn. (Good thing crochet projects dont count on my 2010 goal.)

Off to knit a heel.

(BTW I absolutely LOVE this new theme!!!)

Holy purls!

I have 8 rows left… Technically 16 if you consider that it is RS (right side) and WS (wrong side) rows. The WS rows are killing me… They are mindless and they seem to take forever!!! I feel like I am doomed to be freaking purling for the rest of my life!!! What a fate! I had a genius idea for a design during a purl row though! It is an idea for a sleeve-less little number and I am excited to put some ideas on paper. I just bought some yarn today that will be perfect… It is only a matter of doing some math really. Then sketching and knitting up a test… I guess purling isn’t so bad. At least it gives youind a chance to wander.

I am hoping to finish this shawl this weekend. I hope I remember to bind off super loose… So many Rav folks mentioned this in their notes. Then I will get working on a few fun crochet projects… Strongbad and Homestar Runner for Josh and Toodee from Yo Gabba Gabba for my buddy Boo bear. All while designing this IDEA. I think it will be the perfect pattern to include in the BIG GIVEAWAY… Yes! I am teaming with another mommy blogger to do a big giveaway! Expect it this Spring!!! There are 3 planned for the year so far, so bookmark this blog, check back often and tell your friends. This will be fun!

Enjoy some pics of the shawl…

Why I heart Twitter (today)

There are a billion reasons why twitter is so cool. I tweet almost daily and love it. Every once in awhile something really cool happens to me on twitter and I meet such cool folks. This morning I had a brush with someone pretty cool. I was trying to tweet Martha Stewart, long story short… she was having a technology show and tweeted that you could tweet live on her show, so I tried and failed, tried again and failed… (Well, I was doing it wrong!) I noticed this guy @ShepardJim was tweeting Martha to and he tweeting wondering if it was live, I tweeted him saying I doubted it was (found out later– I was right, she is too much of a perfectionist for live tv, if you ask me) and I noticed he had mentioned being from Maine. I tweeted something to the effect of missing Maine, having grown up there… well I check my twitter tonight and he had sent me a link since he noticed I am a yarn-fiend…  http://www.hatchtown.com/ Well, he is a real shepard and has a CSA farm. I love it! They have fiber and yarn, so here is yet another reason I need to learn spinning! There is absolutely nothing I love more than people who raise sheep. So if you are looking for a good fiber deal, his fiber looks luchious! The yarn is semi-worsted and undyed according to the site and it sounds very tempting right now! Maybe after I get all my dental work out of the way I can afford to join! There is nothing more appealing to me than getting yarn straight from the farm. My only wish is that I could pick it up in person. I miss Maine… but not November-May.

That is why I love twitter (today)

I joined a congo…

http://hyenacart.com/Home2Home/ I joined the Home 2 Home Congo. I will be stocking my items with some other mamas who make diapers. There is some nice diapers and other things in the congo, so be sure and check it out! There is nothing more wonderful than cloth diapering… well, except supporting stay at home Moms!

I am going to let my Hyena Cart lapse, since it is cheaper to go with the congo and it easier to advertise when you have 7-8 other Moms helping! I can also focus more on stocking the congo. Stop by and check it out, tell me what you think!

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Knitting-therapy.

Things have not been going very well for me lately. Josh and I are not getting along the way I would like. It is in my opinion that two stubborn and strong-willed people shouldn’t cohabitate. I have been immersing myself in FLYLADY emails, knitting-therapy and I am trying to enjoy the flowers…
Always the light of my life, here is my son, waving at me from under the table!

Knitting therapy: I decided to frog the Tiny Cables sweater for now. I am not at a level yet where I feel comfortable trying out patterns that have not been tested yet. I felt okay until I kept running into little issues and felt silly constantly asking newbie questions. After the pattern is “broken in” I may try again. For now, I have started the 2009 January Afghan square pattern I picked up at Hanks.

Knit 6, Purl 3, Knit 3, repeat… this is more my level right now. I thought I had it licked and perhaps it might be a bit too easy, then I noticed a few stitch mistakes…

Can you see it there on the edge? It should be garter stitch 3 stiches wide all the way around, but somehow I managed to do a stockinette for a bit. If I had not already started this over several times I would try and fix it, but the frustration of it has led me to straight-up laziness. The mistake is there to stay. *sigh*

Despite the mistake, it is looking quite nice, I think! It has also kept my mind of a bunch of crap and kept me busy so I dont make any kind of hasty decisions. Since I drank 2 cups of coffee today, I hope to avoid napping with my son and finishing this square. Hopefully this will give me a sense of accomplishment a lift my mood a bit. Living in a bigger house seems to have just made me more lonely and a touch depressed. I have noticed that I feel fatigued, my shoulders, neck and back ache every day due to my stress level, my sex drive is the lowest it has been in a long time and I just generally dont feel happy.

Breastfeeding is wearing thin on me these days. Dont get me wrong, I do not regret my choice to do it, but I was under the impression that my son would have self-weaned by now… HAHA fat chance of that. Well I did some reading on KellyMOM and it really helped me feel like I am making the right decision to go with baby-led weaning. I feel like I dont have much choice as it is, since he wont take a bottle, hates a sippy cup most of the time and refuses every type of milk on the planet. I have to keep reminding myself that this is normal! Of course he does not want other milk… he is a human and he needs human milk. I am just so tired of nursing every hour all night long. I am so sleep deprived it is a good thing I dont drive or work out of the home.

I am moving tomorrow afternoon.

So I have the place about halfway packed up. I am making a list of must-brings to the new house. I will be leaving before the boys really get things into the truck, this way they dont have to worry about an escaping dog or toddler. I am happy to get out of here anyway. The baby and the dog can both get out some energy tearing up the back yard and the short walk to the pool and play ground will be nice.

…and then began on the March square… well, it was named “Irish Rose” and it was very pretty… I finished the actual rose part in the middle of the square and then decided to frog it and start a different square when I realized how awkward it would be to lie on top of such a big “rose”… I am really trying to go for a more comfortable blanket at this time, so no more 3-D designs. I decided to go with “Esther’s square” for my March, which is actually a January square, but whatever.

At some point I got the mail and was pleasantly surprised to find YARN!!!

A huge assortment of Araucania Nature Wool from April, a girl on one of my co-op forums. I entered a “yarn for woolies” swap. I signed up as a worker, hoping to make another beautiful skirty for a lucky little girl. The blue and lilac are for me, the pink and pumpkin are for her. She has twins, boy and a girl so I will be working on some shorties as well as a skirty for her! Receiving her yarn in the mail got me thinking about a purchase I made on Hyena Cart… I should have received it by now… it is some delicious BFL called “Starry Night” — I have been in love with it for awhile and finally took the plunge and bought it. I am hoping to find some matching BFL trim somewhere and make it into a Wonderful Wallaby for the Boo.

These were not good.

How is the Gluten-free diet going? Wonderful! Well, until yesterday. I broke down and binged on carbs. Gluten is a delicious thing that I have taken for granted. I have decided I would rather die from a gluten related death than give up my precious gluten. That was the longest week of my life! The deciding factor was pure laziness combined with the complete lack of weight loss. After about 8 days… I didn’t even lose one pound. I blame the depression of looking at that bathroom scale on my full force attack on some REAL french toast sticks followed by a vegetarian corn dog and then a can of veggie soup. After all that I was still hungry, which surprised me. This weekend I intend on consuming the better part of a medium pizza and lots of beer!

You can’t move properly without beer. This is a law of nature.

We did secure a moving truck. Not at first, but after filling out some Internet “paperwork” Josh got a call letting us know we will have a truck at 4:30pm on Saturday. This is great for 3 reasons:

1. I have a hair appointment at 12:15pm, that I no longer have to cancel.

2. We can move this weekend, which does not call for rain… next weekend does.

3. I don’t have to be angry about Josh’s procrastination.

Off to start the skirty for April, finish baking the banana bread, and make taco dinner for the family.

Packing outside the box

This is what happened while I was working on the Jan square. Note to self: buy more vacuum cleaner bags!

I had my last knitting class on Saturday. This delicious hank merino begged to come home with me!

This is proof that my son is already “thinking outside the box”

I am so proud!

Do you ‘Stumble Upon’?

Oh, wow. As if I need another reason to be on the Internet? I mean seriously, between email, blogging here, BBC, Ravelry, twitter, diaper swappers, Etsy and Hyena Cart… the last thing I need is another Internet black hole to suck me in, when I should be reading, counting and singing ABC’s to my son! Well, I am screwed, because I finally found STUMBLE UPON. Jeeez. I honestly played with it for an hour and a half today. I LOVE IT! Let me explain it to you if you are not aware of this addiction.